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Sorrow, stay, lend true repentant tears

Introduction

The tendency of singers to add quantities of ornamentation was not one that found favour with Dowland, but a tantalizing fragment of Sorrow, stay! exists in the same manuscript, including up-to-the-minute Italianate ornaments of the kind that professional singers were using in this sort of theatrical context.

Recordings

'Restores a dimension of beauty that is often sacrificed in present day performances … Happy the family that spent its leisure hours with this mu ...'James Bowman’s usual ease of tone is in full evidence here. He gives us meltingly sweet, gorgeous, resonant high notes, and fluidity of vocal line. M ...» More

Mark Padmore is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest tenors working today. He is admired—among other things—for his ‘extraordinary diction and whispering chamber-like intimacy … [his] joy in conveying the emotional core of each situation’ (Gra ...» More

The marriage of music and poetry and the extraordinary writing for both lute and voice combine to proclaim Dowland as the father of English song. Countertenor Iestyn Davies has gained international fame through his operatic performances (including ...» More

Details

Sorrow, stay, lend true repentant tears, To a woeful wretched wight, Hence, despair with thy tormenting fears: O do not my poor heart affright. Pity, help now or never, Mark me not to endless pain, Alas I am condemned ever, No hope, no help there doth remain, But down, down, down, down I fall, Down and arise I never shall.

Sorrow, stay, lend true repentant tears, To a woeful wretched wight, Hence, despair with thy tormenting fears: O do not my poor heart affright. Pity, help now or never, Mark me not to endless pain, Alas I am condemned ever, No hope, no help there doth remain, But down, down, down, down I fall, Down and arise I never shall.

Sorrow, stay, lend true repentant tears, To a woeful wretched wight, Hence, despair with thy tormenting fears: O do not my poor heart affright. Pity, help now or never, Mark me not to endless pain, Alas I am condemned ever, No hope, no help there doth remain, But down, down, down, down I fall, Down and arise I never shall.